


Abluvion

by unwindmyself



Series: curious shapes shift in the dark [78]
Category: True Blood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Exposition, F/F, Fix-It, Interlude, agency and choices!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-04
Updated: 2015-04-04
Packaged: 2018-03-21 04:52:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3678258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unwindmyself/pseuds/unwindmyself
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jessica and Nora spend some more time talking about pasts and presents intertwined.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Abluvion

**Author's Note:**

> Part one, "Lovely Intermission."

“Did you have, like, on-staff designers and decorators and shit?” Jessica asks, swinging her legs against the counter.  “I mean, Eric and Pam’s house is nice, but this place is all… fancy.  Plus, it’s specific.”

She’s referring to the fact that the kitchen consists of a walk-in refrigerator and the wall-lining counters she’s sitting on, but no oven or other vampire-irrelevant items.

“Oh, I’m sure Eric and Pam were specific to their needs,” Nora says, rolling her eyes suggestively.  “They’d likely have wanted to be accommodating for hypothetical human guests.  Keep them comfortable during one-night stands and the like.  Authority houses weren’t places for humans.”

“Well, we oughta at least get a microwave,” Jessica says.  “Willa’s gonna be bringin’ Brae over, for one.”

Nora shrugs in concession.  “We’ll sort it out.”

“Y’all didn’t really have anything to do with humans if you could help it, huh?” Jessica murmurs.

“That’s why we had Nan, allegedly,” Nora quips.  “Liaising.  We dealt as much with humans as a member of the United States Congress might deal with a member of the British Parliament.  Different worlds, that sort of thing.”

“I can’t even imagine,” Jessica says before she can think better of it.  “I mean, shit, before you I’d never even kissed another vampire.  Livin’ in Bon Temps with a mainstreamer daddy didn’t exactly give me the chance to avoid humans.”

“I’m not sure which is better,” Nora says, and with surprising grace she pushes onto the counter beside Jessica.  “I mean, I think you ought to have known more vampires from the start, or had the opportunity to do if you wanted…”

“Circumstances didn’t exactly align, but yeah, it’d have been nice,” Jessica says wryly.  “Might have saved me some of my troubles.”

Nora nods.  “But I also don’t know that isolationism was the best policy,” she continues, her face falling as she does.  “I’m sure that’s part of why it was so easy to get caught up in – everything.” 

“You know that even if you start a conversation, if you decide you don’t wanna keep goin’ you don’t have to,” Jessica whispers, nudging Nora’s shoulder.

“I appreciate that,” Nora murmurs.  “I think that I’m still sorting some things out, same as you, and I know that for me it helps to have someone to listen objectively.”

“For me, too,” Jessica says.  “I mean, I like havin’ Tara and Willa to bounce things off of.  I never really had friends like that when I was growin’ up, it was all church girls and my little sister when she wasn’t pissin’ me off –”

“I didn’t know you’d had a sister,” Nora interrupts.

“Yeah.”  Jessica pauses, sighs.  “A lot younger than me, so she could seem like a real brat, but I do miss her now.  I think outta all the things I regret, leavin’ her stuck with my human dad’s at the top of the list.”

“I’m sorry,” Nora says, because she’s not sure what else to say, having not left a single person of importance behind when she was turned.

“It’s okay,” Jessica replies immediately, even if it really isn’t.  “I just – I know that after what they think happened to me, my parents musta got even stricter with her.  She’d be a teenager now, I guess, and… well, I know how much that sucks in that house.”

“Did you ever consider…”

“That’s a long messy story,” Jessica interjects.  “Suffice to say, it uh… didn’t go well.”

Nora nods.

“But point I was tryin’ to make,” Jessica continues before the other subject can be pressed further, “I like havin’ them to talk to ‘cause I never had that before, but talkin’ to you is different.  Since you’ve got whole extra lifetimes of experiences.”

“You know, it’s sort of odd for me being one of the oldest ones in our little circle,” Nora muses.  “I was one of the younger chancellors, either way you look.  Alexander had been turned when he was a child and that hadn’t even been a century past, and Rosalyn didn’t have two centuries even though she looked like a society matron, but it wasn’t exactly a job you’d get as a newborn.”

“Makes sense,” Jessica agrees.  “How old were you when you turned?  That’s never not gonna be weird, like Tara was Sookie’s age but I’m also older than her now, y’know?”

“Just past twenty-one,” Nora says.  “Still a youth by modern standards, and that _is_ the magic number in the States, but back then I was practically an old maid already, or I would have been if my unofficial position wasn’t so widely known.”

“Jeez,” Jessica laughs.  “That’s even weirder.  I mean, you look it, you’re gorgeous, just – you were barely older than I am.”

“And yet.”

“And yet.”  Jessica shrugs, daring to reach for Nora’s hand to hold and staring out at the room before them.

“You know, the apparent redecorating project doesn’t have to be left in Pam’s hands,” Nora offers after a moment. 

“Now that she’s dibsed it, it does,” Jessica points out.  “No way in hell am I risking interrupting her design scheme or… whatever.”

“She doesn’t seem like she’d be particularly partial to that,” Nora observes.

“She’s a micromanager,” Jessica clarifies. “I think it’s why you and her don’t always get on.” She says that last with a wry smile.

“I’m sure that’s a part of it,” Nora shrugs. She knows she has that tendency herself, she’s not offended. “I’ve never had as much of a problem with her as she did with me, but –”

“Pam has problems with everyone ‘cept Eric and Tara,” Jessica declares. “She has a problem with me and she’s basically my godmom. But she’s more a softy than she lets on.”

Nora nods. “I think she’s got a strong family feeling, anyhow,” she says. “It just takes her a while to decide who falls into that category.” She shrugs. “I think that’s another truth about vampires, generally, a lot of us. Keeping our own close, but changing what that means as needed.”


End file.
